SINGAPORE Messaging platform WhatsApp on Thursday announced a range of new security features aimed at making it more difficult for hackers to take over users accounts.

These tools, which will be added to the Meta-owned app in the coming months, introduce extra checks to ensure that people are who they say they are.

For example, when users switch their WhatsApp account to a new device, they may receive an alert on their old device asking them to verify if they really wish to do so. Getting an unexpected alert could mean someone is trying to steal their account.

Another feature serves a similar function by ensuring that hackers are not able to install malware to access users personal messages. This tool works in the background, needing no action from the users.

They can also automatically verify that they are really messaging the person they believe they are chatting with by clicking on the encryption tab under a contacts info. Currently, users have to manually verify a security code.

WhatsApp said in a blog post on its website: Protecting your personal messages with default end-to-end encryption is the foundation of that security and we will keep building new features to give you extra layers of privacy. More On This Topic Anti-scam bot and monitoring service to detect spoofed govt websites among new digital tools Iras warns against WhatsApp calls from scammers impersonating tax authority